


The Faces of Orciny

by JackieSBlake7



Category: The City and the City
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 01:39:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18681523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackieSBlake7/pseuds/JackieSBlake7
Summary: Aspects of the third city





	The Faces of Orciny

Orciny actually exists in many forms - with somewhat fluid boundaries, and changing over time.

The locality where what would become the two cities had had a name which was the distant ancestor of Orciny, which had been given to the first settlement sufficiently large enough to be given a name. Like many other towns which persisted and even grew into cities had two or several communities, operating at least partially independently of each other - Orciny was the only one where the separation became crystallised into two completely different entities. Some vague memory of the original city persisted - and that it was somehow connected with the strange antique metal objects found: this was the first Orciny.

Many cities in the world have or had places that were outside the formal administration - in London there were the various Liberties - Alsatia and Norton Folgate being two - and there was the Walled City once associated with Hong Kong. Perhaps the largest of the unassigned localities was the entity known as Neutral Moresnet, whose inhabitants enjoyed various rights - but were also effectively stateless: it is now part of Belgium. There were several such unassigned places which were in the border areas between Besźel and Ul Qoma: the processes of building and rebuilding meant that these places, not always directly accessible, were to some extent unfixed. Not all were consciously known of - and however they were made use of. These were Orciny-as-is - as were the more formal boundaries, patrolled by those of the Breach.

Then there is the Orciny of the activists and others, which is more imaginary than achievable. For them the vision is more important, more significant than the reality, the world as it could be, existing in many ill-defined and overlapping forms, and usually without much practical detail. Sometimes 'the authorities' pay heed to what such people want - or what their claims actually reflect. Orciny as it could be was as elusive as a bubble floating between Besźel and Ul Qoma.

The incomers who wish to exploit the resources of the double-city have a different view of Orciny, a thing of smoke and mirrors, to disguise what they are attempting to do. Whether their goal is achievable, and their dismissal of the peculiar politics of the place is justifiable is not presently evident - but they have yet to provide an alternative and stronger vision. 

Then there is the Orciny that to some extent binds the pair of cities and their inhabitants together - the Orciny that actually is. Ul Qoma and Besźel, and Breach, can only exist separately by also being Orciny collectively - and the inhabitants know it exists but that until such occasion as they have to operate against a major threat they have to unsee it as they do the other city.


End file.
